


Work ¥ the Proposed 
Central Missionary 
Bureau of Informa- 
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Missionary Bureau 


New York, Jan. 16, 1901. 


A number of those closely associated 
with the work of the recent Ecumenical 
Missionary Conference in New York de- 
sire to see continued in some permanent 
form what the Conference was in its ex- 
hibit and summation of missionary effort 
and in its co-operation and its reciprocal 
contributions. 

Two propositions to this end have 
been discussed since the Conference: 
One for an International or Interconfer- 
encial Committee composed of delegates 
from the Conferences held more or less 
periodically in different countries—the 
one held annually in New York, every 
January, of the American and Canadian 
Societies, being perhaps the largest and 
best known. 


The second proposition is to establish 
a Missionary Bureau with its national 
and local chapters in the great cen- 
ters, to collect and publish such in- 
formation as would conserve the re- 
sults of all these Conferences and furnish 
reliable data, as to distribution of mis- 
sionary force, occupation of fields, and 
vital statistics. It is evident that no one 
of these Conferences furnishes a suffi- 
ciently broad constituency to foster such 
a bureau and that by the very nature of 
their organizations they are not suffi- 
ciently free to act or to raise the neces- 
sary funds for a permanent work. Hence 
the Missionary Bureau of Information 
would be constituted separately. Its 
charter members would be persons who 
have sufficient interest and belief in its 
utility to start it and give it standing. 
These would naturally invite such other 
persons to join them as are able to con- 
tribute toward its expenses or to forward 
its objects in the districts in which they 
are living. Besides these more active 
members there are certain men which it 

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would be of advantage to have on its 
roll of Honorary Members. 

The oljects of the Bureau of Informa- 
tion can be briefly stated, but its utility 
will be most appreciated by those who 
have been engaged in similar work. 
These objects are: (1) To furnish the 
Church and especially its administrative 
Boards of Foreign Missions with accu- 
rate data as to the occupation of the entire 
field. (2) To collect statistics of an 
authoritative character which are con- 
stantly called for by those preparing 
sermons, addresses and literary produc- 
tions of all kinds upon the general sub- 
ject of missions. (3) To act as anagency 
for publications common to all the socie- 
ties, thus reducing the cost and increasing 
greatly the availability of such literature, 
andfor maps of fields. (4) To keepa 
Directory of Missions and Missionaries. 

Such a Bureau would be an ever up-to- 
date Encyclopedia of Missions,and would 
stand in the same relation to Boards of 
Foreign Missions as the United Charities 
Organization does to local societies. 

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The wtility of such a Bureau is mani- 
fest. The Missionary Magazines need 
a common center of information. Hith- 
erto the collection of information has 
been made by individuals spasmod- 
ically and generally in the _ interest 
of some special publication. It is 
not generally recognized how great 
has been the expense of effort and of 
money required to make such a body of 
Statistics reasonably comprehensive and 
complete. Many of the societies are not 
prepared to answer the most simple 
questions involving the statistics of their 
missions without writing to their mis- 
sionaries on the field; and the mission- 
aries frequently refer back again to their 
society headquarters because they have 
no system for compiling the statistics of 
the whole field. For years past the mis- 
sionary world relied upon the statistics 
collected by Dean Vahl, of Copenhagen, 
who died two years ago. Since his 
decease the Rev. James S. Dennis, D.D., 
has taken up the work at large personal 


cost, sending statistical blanks to the 
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societies and their mission stations 
throughout the world, seeking in the 
most thorough and systematic manner 
to gather data for a comprehensive report 
of the foreign missionary operations of 
the Church and of their results as far as 
they can be tabulated. 

The work of the Bureau naturally falls 
into several well defined departments, 
each of which involves the collation of 
material faithfully and continuously for 
along period. Such periodical reports 
or publications might be issued from 
time to time as would contribute to the 
literature of missions and aid in approxi- 
mating the solution of many questions. 
The utility of the Bureau would increase 
from year to year as the data it furnished 
grew more exact and comprehensive. 
The departments forming the immediate 
work of the Bureau would be: 


Geographical. 


The work of this department would require that the 

fullest and most recent maps be procured, and all 

places where foreign missionaries are resident, or 
if 


where there are stations or mission institutions, be 
indicated thereon by proper signs, and the maps 
made to show all the new places occupied, immedi- 
ately upon the receipt of information. This will in- 
volve the continuous services of some competent car- 
tographer. The method pretty generally adopted is 
to indicate only the stations of the society for whose 
exclusive use the map is prepared. . This tends to a 
very partial view of the occupancy of a field and the 
relative strength of other organizations than the one 
in whose interest the map was made, and often to a 
total distortion of the map itself, whereby small 
towns in which the society has stations appear 
more important than large cities in which the society 
has none, while in some cases the cities are omitted 
altogether. 

The publications of this department would be: 
(1) Blue-print- copies for use of Boards and Missions, 
of maps showing all points occupied as far as known 
to the Bureau. These blue-prints could be furnished 
the Board regularly, or when specially applied for. 
(2) Atlas Maps with data and index—issued when 
ready, finally resulting in a comprehensive Missionary 
Atlas. (3) Large outline Maps for use in Missionary 
meetings. A popular interest might be given to the 
Geographical Department by the preparation of a 
large globe, say 30 feet in diameter, which would be 
the equivalent of a map too feet in length, showing 
the entire distribution of the Missionary force of the 
world. This might be prepared for a permanent 
exhibit or for a future Ecumenical Conference. 

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Statistical. 


The value of statistics is not alone in the summation 
of results, or in many of the deductions that are 
made from them, pro or con, of the advance of the 
Kingdom of Christ in the world, but also in the more 
accurate view of the work gained by all who are 
engaged in it. - In other words, the value of the sta- 
tistics is as great to the worker and the Native Church 
as to the Church at Home. The very process ot 
gathering accurate statistics in itself induces a cer- 
tain study of the work essential to an analytical in- 
sight and proportioning of effort. The work of 
gathering these statistics requires much greater de- 
tail and persistency of effort than is generally sup- 
posed. It becomes a great burden to missionaries 
on the field to make up statistics to correspond with 
more than one form during the year. A very slight 
change in wording may require an entirely new set 
of figures, and unless the statistics of all the Mis- 
sions are made out in similar form they do not go 
together, and the effort to summarize them is try- 
ing and unsatisfactory. It is a department which 
requires the supervision of an expert with practical 
experience in gathering statistics. 


Bibliographical. 
The preparation of a comprehensive Missionary Bib- 
liography has been attempted at various times. The 
most extensive one of the kind was published in the 
‘Encyclopedia of Missions,” New York, 1891, pre- 
pared by Samuel Macauley Jackson, of which a 
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summary had appeared in the London Conference 
Report in 1888. To this bibliography the Rev. Dr. 
Dennis printed a supplement in his book, ‘‘ Foreign 
Missions After a Century,” and he also gave selected 
lists after the successive chapters in his book, 
‘Christian Missions and Social Progress.” A new 
bibliography, compiled by the Rev. Harlan P. Beach, 
appears in the Ecumenical Missionary Conference 
Report of 1900. The cost of publishing as well as 
the labor of compiling a bibliography which would 
“cover the entire field and include all the appropriate 
literature would be very great. It is proposed to 
compile such a bibliography upon cards and put 
it at the service of the supporters of the Missionary 
Bureau, and to issue from time to time a bulletin in 
which the titles of new books or recent accessions to 
the catalogue would be published, with such anno- 
tations as would make the books more generally 
useful. The Bureau might eventually publish the 
entire bibliography if sufficient money could be 
raised for the purpose. It is confidently expected 
that there are enough persons able and willing to 
render expert help in compiling such a bibliography 
to carry such a work to its completion without extra 
cost to the Bureau. . 


Biographical Department. 
The work of this department would be closely asso- 
ciated with that of bibliography. It would consist 
of a card index or directory of all missionaries, and 
those identified with the Foreign Missionary work of 
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the world, giving in brief their biography and literary 
productions. At present, it is often extremely diffi- 
cult to identify persons whose biography does not 
appear in the Bibliography of Missions, though their 
names may constantly appear in connection with 
current events, or in missionary history. Who the 
living missionaries or missionary writers are and the 
number of men on the field would easily be learned 
from such a department. The advantage also of 
such a list to the Bureau is obvious, asa large part of 
its correspondence must be with these very persons, 
and circulars of various sorts would be sent them 
from time to time. 


Science of Missions. 


There has been a vast gain in the last ten years from 
the study of missions from the Ecumenical stand- 
point. Collecting from the whole range of mission- 
ary effort experience in each department of work 
or with regard to the application of certain principles 
will often make,it unnecessary to learn over again by 
bitter experience what ought already to be well 
known to all who are engaged in missionary work. 
Contributions to this department would come in 
from individual writers in the form of monographs 
on special topics; much would also be gathered from 
the reports of Conferences held on Mission fields, not 
ordinarily accessible to the great body of the Church 
nor to the missionaries in other fields. This would 
naturally lead to the publication of a series of buoks 
at low cost, owing to size of edition, on such topics 
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as the following: (1) The Missionary Call and 
Service; (2) Administration of Missions; (3) Pre- 
sentation of Gospel to non-Christians; (4) Educa- 
tional Problems; (5) Medical Missionary Work; 
(6) Christian Literature in Mission Lands; (7) 
Comity and Division of Field; (8) Development of 
Native Churches and Self-Support. 


Deputational. 


One of the valuable outcomes of such a Bureau 
might be the appointment of certain persons to visit 
and study the work in the different fields, or to go 
out as specialists in the different departments of 
effort, both to study the work and stimulate the 
workers to the highest efficiency, thus effecting a 
general saving while developing a greater certainty 
and simplicity in the methods employed. 


Office, Employees, Publications. 


In establishing such a Bureau of Information it will 
be positively necessary to provide in the first instance 
for at least two persons, one to take the main 
responsibility under the Executive Committee and 
the other to assist. An office should be secured at 
an accessible place in the city, and there are certain 
publications which should be issued to report the 
progress in the collection of information and to con- 
tain the annual Statistics of Missions. This would 
constitute the minimum expenditure to be provided 
for. 


